Curtailment of civil liberties is what this is about. Environmental bans is under consideration for inclusion in the list of activities outlawed under provisions of competition laws dealing with secondary boycotts. Sickening. Coalition MPs and industry groups are using a review of competition laws to push for a ban on campaigns against companies on the grounds that they are selling products that damage the environment, for example by using old-growth timber or overfished seafood. The parliamentary secretary for agriculture, Richard Colbeck, said the backbench rural committee and “quite a number in the ministry” want to use the review to remove an exemption for environmental groups from the consumer law ban on so-called “secondary boycotts”. “I do think there is an appetite in the government for changing these laws,” Colbeck said. The exemption also applies to campaigns related to “consumer protection” but Colbeck said he would not be seeking to change that provision. The government announced last week a “root and branch review” of competition policy headed by the economist Professor Ian Harper. Groups including the Australian Forest Products Association and parts of the seafood industry are also preparing submissions to the review arguing that environmental campaigns against companies selling products made from native timbers or “unsustainable” fishing amount to a “secondary boycott” and should be unlawful. Colbeck said the change was aimed at campaigns like the “NoHarveyNo” campaign by GetUp! and Markets for Change, which is demanding the furniture retailer Harvey Norman stop selling products made from native forests. “They are saying the forest industry in Tasmania is destroying native forests and that is clearly a dishonest campaign,” Colbeck claimed. theguardian/environment/2014/apr/02/coalition-review-of-consumer-laws-may-ban-environmental-boycotts 21st Century National Competition Policy on steroids...no thanks Abbott!!!
Posted on: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 00:16:22 +0000